Two tuition agreements before town voters

Thursday

Jan 23, 2014 at 3:15 AM

By Liz Markhlevskayalmark@fosters.com

BARRINGTON — At the polls in March, voters will decide on proposed tuition agreements with two local high schools, as well as a collective bargaining agreement with teachers and an operating budget with a proposed 4-percent increase.

After a public hearing last week, the Barrington School Board voted to recommend several warrant articles that will appear before voters in March. Two of the proposed articles involve new tuition agreements for high school students.

As the tuition agreement with Dover High School expires at the end of this school year, the Dover and Barrington school boards agreed to a 10-year agreement that would allow Barrington to send up to 400 students to Dover High School. As part of the agreement, Barrington would pay a base tuition rate to the Dover School District, as well as other costs associated with the agreement.

The School Board is also recommending a 10-year tuition agreement with Durham’s Oyster River High School, which would start in the fall 2015. As part of the proposed contract, the Barrington district would pay Oyster River School District about $14,000 per each student sent to the Durham high school.

Also on this year’s warrant is a proposed collective bargaining agreement with Barrington teachers. According to Superintendent Gail Kushner, the two-year agreement includes wage increases for teachers, but the teachers union also agreed to make concessions on its health care plans to help save costs to the district. She said the Barrington Educator Association agreed to a change in health insurance — the district now offers Health Trust for health insurance, but if the contract is approved by voters, teachers would be using SchoolCare health insurance.

According to Kushner, without the health insurance concessions, the negotiated contract would cost the district $276,898 this year. But with cost savings included in the proposed health insurance plan, the proposed agreement would cost the district $123,878. Next year, the contract would cost $181,527.

Also recommended by the School Board is an operating budget for next year, which would be an increase of 4.56 percent over this year’s budget. Kushner said a bulk of the increase is related to the proposed tuition agreements.

Residents will be able to amend proposed warrant articles during a deliberative session scheduled 9 a.m. Feb. 8 at the Middle School. A final vote on the articles will take place March 11.